National Institutes Of Health: Cola Causes Kidney Problems

By consumeristcareyJanuary 26, 2008

Do you like kidney stones? Great! Coke and Pepsi are the drinks for you. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health found that drinking just two cans of cola per day doubles the risk of chronic kidney disease.

In a study published in the journal Epidemiology, the team compared the dietary habits of 465 people with chronic kidney disease and 467 healthy people. After controlling for various factors, the team found that drinking two or more colas a day — whether artificially sweetened or regular — was linked to a twofold risk of chronic kidney disease.

Drinks without high levels of phosphoric acid—seltzer and other “noncola carbonated beverages”—don’t seem to anger kidneys.

@azntg: this article (though seems to just be common sense) does open my eyes to my bad habit though. if sprite or seven up really is better, i would switch. i’m assuming by your comment that they have low levels of phosphoric acid. don’t have one near by to check.

I stopped drinking Cokes for a few months a couple of years ago and lost 35 pounds without even really dieting. But now I am back up to 2-3 a day and trying to quit again is HARD!

Sometimes I wonder if the soda companies put something in them to make the caffeine more addicting, like the cigarette companies do to the nicotine in their product? People seem to have such a hard time when they try to quit drinking them.

Crap! At the movie theatre where I work emploies are allowed practialy unlimited amounts of soda. So like everyone else working there nearly half my diet is pepsi! (The other half of my diet is of course the unlimited free popcorn.)

First off, the fact that they are studying people who HAVE chronic kidney disease and not studying what people are doing up to when they develop chronic kidney disease is an important distinction. It cannot be assumed that the habits of people WITH a disease are the same as people who may yet develop that disease.

Secondly, and more importantly, lets look at the risk multiplier. It says the study found drinking 2 cans of soda doubles your risk of kidney disease. Remember though, that its doubling the ordinary risk of kidney disease which is still quite small. 1 times 2 is still just 2. Twice not much risk is still probably not much risk. That’s the key thing to remember whenever you hear that something doubles your risk of some other bad thing. Your risk of getting that bad thing probably isn’t high to begin with, so doubling it isn’t going to get that much higher. Smoking, for instance, increases cancer risk by 10 to 20 times. That’s 1000%-2000% increased risk. A 100% increase is just a lot smaller and not something to panic about every time an initial study comes out that gets the media all a flutter.

Everything is bad for you. Life is the ultimate terminal illness, so pick your battles.

One point that I’d like to point out over every “OMG, this is going to kill you” article is that people also get cancer right out of the blue, even if they’ve never smoked, drank, or swilled Coca-Cola out of a 55-gallon drum. You could also get killed tomorrow by a bus.

My uncle died from pancreatic cancer at 60, and he never smoke, drank, or gambled, so you can still do everything absolutely right and die earlier than somebody who broke every rule in the book.

Why is this news to anyone? It’s common knowledge that colas cause kidney stones — ask any doctor what the first question is that they ask kidney stone patients, and they’ll tell you they ask “do you drink a lot of cokes?”. Old news.

The last time I decided to support coca-cola was this:
I was in the store and picked up a case. After I left and went home, while I was putting the case away I looked underneath it and it said something along the lines of this:
“Coca Cola is Refreshing, Rehydrating and Good for you because it contains water, the most essential nutrient!”

As I recall, the last time I heard that was when one of the stooges who works for the food and beverage industry decided to step up to the microphone and give a speech to god knows who. I think his quote went something like “Soda contains water, and I think that’s nutritious”

Whatever. I will continue to drink my two to three Zeros a day, which are a little slice of liquid heaven, and make me happy. Why should I give them up on the CHANCE that some study of a few people is right, and I have twice the chance of developing stones? I could kick from a heart attack, or get run over tomorrow. I’ll go pop open a pop right now.

Seven up has phosphoric acid in it also. I thought that was going to be my way around not drinking coke anymore until I read the label. Phosphoric acid can also deplete the magnesium in your system leading to magnesium deficiency that can cause muscle cramps and all sorts of things. According to some dentists drinking lots of soda will do worse things to your teeth than meth will. Oddly enough orange soda is worse than coke on your teeth.

Of course, any carbonated drink will eventually cause irreversible damage to your skeleton, cola or not. Not to mention that some drinks more or less have potentially cancer-causing chemicals as part of their ingredients. You people do realize that our processed food lives are slowly killing each and every one of us, right? It’s just, and no pun intended, not natural. It’s a big part of the major disease issues we’re facing more and more. A great many illnesses can be traced back to products we all use literally every day.

The really sad part is that it’s beyond the majority of us to truly do anything about it because most of us lack the means to break out of the grasp of processed goods. We get to not only slowly kill ourselves, but also be aware of it, and know we can’t stop it from happening. Joy oh joy.

@dwayne_dibbly: The point isn’t that you can cheat death by being healthy, the point is there are correlations between many types of behavior (eating garbage food, for example) and the onset of diseases and premature death.

If you eat right, exercise, and generally follow good habits, you’re more likely to live longer and have a healthier life than others who do not.

Phosphoric acid is added to some soft drinks to act as an acidulant. Acidulants add a pleasant tartness to soft drinks and act as a preservative. The use of phosphoric acid results in the beverage having some dietary phosphorus. Phosphorus, like calcium, is an essential mineral for bone health. It is widely distributed in the food supply, including fish, milk, meat, eggs and cereal grains. A small amount of the clear, colorless liquid known as phosphoric acid is added to carbonated soft drinks to provide tartness, essential to a well-rounded flavor. Carbonated soft drinks, however, are not a significant source of phosphorus in the diet, generally contributing only 2% to 4% of the daily dietary phosphorus intake. For example, one cup of milk contains 250 mg of phosphorus while an equivalent amount of cola contains no more than 48 to 56 mg. The U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowance of phosphorus for adequate nutrition is 800 mg per day.

Last year, I stopped drinking soda. Two weeks ago, I broke down and bought a soda because I had a bad craving for one. I managed take 3-4 sips before I had to throw it away. I could actually feel the texture of the awful high fructose corn syrup on my tongue and it grossed me out. I can’t believe I drank that junk for decades.

The hardest part is giving it up. But after a week or two, you won’t miss it at all.

I’ve had kidney stones and they’re no fun. From what I’ve read one of the primary causes is caffeine. Which means not only colas, but many other carbonated drinks as well. Look at the cans and you’ll be surprised at how many non-cola beverages have caffeine. Coffee and chocolate are also problematic.

Ever since I was hospitalized with kidney stones a few years ago, I’ve limited myself to one caffeinated beverage a day, usually coffee. My favorite substitutes have been diet Sprite, 7-up and ginger ale. It’s been reasonably successful, since I haven’t had to goto the hospital again, but I still have some pain whenever I don’t drink enough water. The only problem is my dentist is now telling me I’m drinking too many diet drinks. I can’t win.

@HooFoot: You know, I wish I could agree with the “you won’t miss it at all” part. I went from about 2 liters/day to nothing – nothing! in a month. Lots of water, juices, & soy milk. Everyone said I’d feel more alert within 2 weeks of kicking the stuff – it never happened, and I missed Coke terrrrribly. I now have come to a good balance. I don’t keep it in my house, but every time I fill up my tank, I pop into the gas station’s store and grab a small one. Seems to work okay.

@HooFoot:
I agree. I stopped drinking soda cold turkey a couple of years ago, when I realized how much money I was wasting on sodas when I would be perfectly happy with water. (I’m one of the few people I know who naturally drinks the recommended eight glasses a day of water, and this is even when I don’t exercise that day…)

But, when I try Coke, Pepsi, etc now because I am tempted by free soda at an event, I am struck anew by how nasty they taste. It really is just colored water and sugar (HFCS). And then I go back to my trusty water.

All black colas contain phosphoric acid. Neither Seven Up or Sprite contain phosphoric acid but some citrus-type sodas do.
Before this study, phosphoric acid has been known for years to remove calcium from your bones to deal with the unnatural phosphorus you are consuming. It also neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs needed to digest food and absorb nutrients, especially calcium.

I hate it when people spout self-righteous BS at me and others all the time like that.

I’ve stopped drinking cola for periods of time (it interferes with certain medications, primarily pain relievers, so when you have your wisdom teeth out…), and have never noticed a difference for the better.

I’m quite aware that caffeine is a horribly addictive drug, though. The withdrawal from both the caffeine and the sugar is excruciating.

The end result is that I feel just like I did before stopping, but suffer the withdrawals and have a harder time waking in the morning and working through my 14 hour shifts.

I get the same rot about smoking, as well. I’ve stopped for months because I wanted the money more, and the only ‘benefit’ I noticed was that I felt far more stressed out while at work and ate roughly twice as much (which sort of killed the whole ‘saving money’ thing).

You can argue that cola and other soft drinks will make you gain weight. You can argue that smoking has a variety of health risks. You can’t argue that dropping them will suddenly free you of all your problems and make your crap smell like roses, though, and that’s what people want us to believe.

I don’t necessarily doubt the results of this study (but then, it isn’t like anyone is arguing that soft drinks are good for you), but until it is at least replicated, and at best replicated with a much larger group, I’m not going to just accept the results carte blanche.

If you’re drinking eight glasses of water a day, you might as well stop eating. Drinking eight glasses of water in addition to what you get from the food you eat simply causes your body to flush the nutrients you’re consuming.

People like to spout that one, too. The original study specified that the human body needs 64oz of water a day, it said nothing about consuming 64oz of plain water. Further studies determined that consuming that much water in addition to your intake from everything else you consume (soups, vegetables, sauces, milk, etc.) overhydrates your cells, causing them to release waste material that contains more unprocessed nutrients.

The short of it is that if you pee and you can barely tell that it is yellow, you need to drink much less water.

Not difficult at all to enjoy healthy foods. “Healthy” doesn’t mean “bland.” Some people enjoy plain broccoli. Adding a light cheese sauce isn’t going to kill you, though. Doesn’t need to be swimming in it, of course…

You can also pick up bags of shelled edamame for not much more than peas, and steam them for 10-15 minutes. Steamed asparagus is great.

Spaghetti squash with marinara sauce… butternut squash soup… baked yams with some real butter (just skip the margarine, it doesn’t taste as good and isn’t really much better for you)… pot roast with veg… broccoli soup (made with some of the broccoli-water, not with milk/cream, and properly seasoned)…

You don’t have to be scared of seasoning the food to eat healthy. The main factor is time, which most of us don’t have. Eating healthy takes far longer, but tastes just as good.

I’d like to have a compiled list of all the things that contribute to my demise. Smoking, drinking, soda, HFCS, trans fats, etc. I wonder if they had such a list, and you avoided everything on it, would you live forever?

I have not read the Epidemiology article, but there are a few things to consider.

A) Association does not imply causality, which is a mantra of statisticians, esp. in medicine. (There is a link, for instance, between high homocystine levels in the blood and increased cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke. However, reducing homocysteine levels with folic acid has not been shown to reduce these events!)

B) And again, I haven’t read the study…but, this type of study is really a terrible way to analyze a question. They group together a whole bunch of people who now have CKD and asked them how much soda they have had in the past. This type of study can be very, very biased based on “recall” and what patients are able to (or want to) tell you.

C) Again, study design: Patients who drink 2 or more sodas a day, may also be more likely to develop obesity. With the increased sugar and obesity, they may also be at an increased risk for Diabetes, which is a MUCH larger risk factor for developing CKD than soda would be. In such a small study of 800 total patients, it would be very difficult to control for things such as Diabetes, obesity, etc, though they may have tried…Just something to look at.

Personally, and I’ve said this before: as a medical professional, I don’t really appreciate Consumerist’s sensationalistic attitude towards medical stories when the editors often don’t understand the true issues being discussed. Either get a medical professional to help with the stories, or stop publishing such articles.

I’ve tried to quit drinking sodas but I can’t seem to get past the horrible headaches I get while at work when I don’t have them.
I drink a lot of sodas at work because I’m bored and need to stay awake. On days I work I go through 7-10 cans a day and if I go out later that night then add 4 more to that. I have a soda problem. :

One more thing: Chronic Kidney disease (CKD) is not the same thing, at all, as kidney stones. CKD refers to decreased renal function on a long-term basis that eventually requires hemodialysis. Kidney stones may be linked to soda use, but that is not what is being referred to here by Chronic Kidney Disease.

Coke / Coca Cola taste good, especially when I was overseas. Take the taste test yourself if you don’t believe me (buy some foreign coke that they sell at a Bodega (with Spanish print) / Asian market (with the Asian print) VS. the US retail Coke / Coca Cola).
That is the difference for me in the real sugar vs. HFCS debate.

I don’t believe the radical or real media “hype” but I do believe my own taste buds. REAL sugar may or may not be healthier for me but it sure tastes better to me.

Regardless of that though, I am now down to only only 1 can per week nowadays and this was primarily due to the news program where they use Cola to clean porcelain toilets. If it can clean – and I mean CLEAN to sparkly white CLEAN – toilets, you have to imagine what cola can do to your teeth, insides, etc.

@sleepydumbdude:”I’ve tried to quit drinking sodas but I can’t seem to get past the horrible headaches I get while at work when I don’t have them.”

Not a soda problem, a caffeine problem. Take it from someone who knows. :)
IANADNDIP1OTV (I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV) but I -believe- that, caffeine being a vasodilator, the headaches are caused by the loss of caffeine from the blood vessels in your brain. That’s my uneducated theory, but I’ve personally found that ginkyo (another vasodilator) helped take the edge off the headaches whenever I’d go cold turkey.

has anyone seen what Coca-Cola is now putting on their boxes? something that tells consumers that Coca-Cola and soft drinks are thirst quenching and hydrating. YEAH! ’cause we all know CAFFEINE HYDRATES YOU!!! I think if you were to look in any health book it would say that you should drink a certain amount of water per day, and that includes anything EXCEPT caffeinated drinks or alcoholic drinks. WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY’RE FOOLING?! Oh right…we Americans are stupid and gluttonous.

Hate to break it to those who hit ANY carbonated drink heavily, but you need to RTFA.

Kidney stones are not the same as kidney disease.

“Carbonated beverage consumption has been linked with diabetes, hypertension, and kidney stones all risk factors for chronic kidney disease.“

Frequent drinking of anything carbonated can cause kidney stones – it caused mine. Switching to from Coke to 7-UP won’t help. Sure, you might not have chronic kidney failure, but you’re still at risk for the stones according to my urologist.

i can somewhat believe this. i produce dime size kidney stones every three years and have to have them surgically treated. one of my favorite drinks (although i drink water more often) is coke. I love it! Since my kidney si free and clear of stones, now is a good time to part ways with coke and see if that was what was causing the stones.

Many members of my family have what can best be described as an allergy to phosphoric acid. Most of us get sick from sodas that have it. Some of us can’t even handle what you get from creamy salad dressings.

@Sunflower1970: So did my wife and I! (although we do cheat and have 1 every 2 weeks or so but the craving is no longer there for it)

We also made it a requirement that we drink 2-3 14oz glasses of water a day (in addition to other drinks). Honestly, I don’t remember the last time I felt this good. The soda companies can keep their HFCS and phosphoric acid – I’ll stick to water, coffee, and alcohol.

The study article does not talk about kidney stones. It’s talking about chronic kidney disease, which actually has nothing to do with kidney stones. CKD is when your kidneys begin to fail (there are many causes), and you need to be put on dialysis.

@axiomatic: red meat is a contributor of a certain ingredient that can make up kidney stones.. red meat produces uric acid which can make stones in the kidney if your body doesn’t metabolize uric acid correctly (in that case you can take a pill).. it is important not to assume if you have a stone that it was caused by red meat (or for soda, for that matter, which is rumored to produce a calcite based stone). is much more important to have your urologist send the stones and your urine in for testing. your urologist will tell you what foods and things to avoid and then tell you that you need to drink more water. i just wanted to point that out. so ends my public service announcement.